11-05–11-07-2026 Overnight to Da Nang and a Race to Patch the Servers

We left Hoi Chi Minh city by train. A new vulnerability was discovered in a core part of PHP which underlies a large portion of all websites. This caused the whole Internet community to scramble. This one was serious and several huge websites took themselves offline until they could fix it. First the programmers had to fix the vulnerability and release a new version of PHP, then all the server companies had to patch all of their servers, then all of the webmasters had to upgrade this part of their servers. For that reason, Eric had to head up to Da Nang and work on this. Cara continued on to visit some other spots in Vietnam.

Thursday — The Train North

Eric hopped on the train for a 20 hour ride to DaNang. Cara hopped the train to head to Dalat.

Friday — Arriving in Da Nang

Eric got settled into Da Nang and got thing organized and started patching the servers.

Saturday — Servers Patched

Saturday Eric got all of the servers patched just in the nick of time. One of the sites was getting 500 attacks per 10 minutes, but the security measures in place held.

Travel Facts

Dates: Thursday, November 5 through Saturday, November 7, 2026.

Route: Ho Chi Minh City to Da Nang, Vietnam, by overnight train.

Train journey: About 20 hours, with a 7 pm departure, as described in the submitted story and captions. Eric chose a four-bed sleeper compartment.

In Da Nang: Settling into a hotel near the beach, walking along the beachfront, and patching servers. Cara continued exploring elsewhere in Vietnam.

Food: A bacon-and-egg banh mi, described in the submitted caption as costing a buck fifty.

Getting around: Walking and Grab cars, as described in the submitted captions.

Photos and Videos

Eric got on the train at 7 pm. This is a picture of the sunrise the next morning.

The train had a big window and it was a 4 bed sleeper. Eric shared his room with a young family who had a really cute little 4 year old. They didn't speak english and I didn't take any pictures of them, but they were really nice.

The Scenery was pretty interesting, It was mostly rural and then you would pop through a town. There were a lot of mountains off in the distance.

There were a lot of fish farms too

The picture didn't turn out real good, but on the top of the hills you often saw a temple.

I should have taken a better picture of the room on the train. There were 2 top bunks and 2 bottom bunks. You had the option of a room with 6 beds, a private room, a 4 bed room, and regular seats. I like people so I chose a 4 bed room.

This was a regular sight, a rice paddy

Cara will be coming to Da Nang after a couple of weeks of exploring. We spent a month in Da Nang last year and we had already booked a room there for 2 months. They had a room available so Eric is staying at that same hotel....he just checked in early. It is a block from the beach.

There is a walkway all along the beach in Da Nang

Da Nang had changed a lot in a year. There is a TON of building going on.

I took this video because you don't see this very often. I wondered how long that pig would take to cook?

I walk everywhere or get a grab. Grab is like Uber. For a buck or two you can get everywhere. I always take a car because the traffic seems pretty sketchy.

The seafood restaurants all have aquariums. They tie little bows on the crabs. You pick out what you want to eat and they kill it and cook it for you.

The next morning I got this bacon and egg sandwich for a buck. It is called a banh mi sandwich and they are served everywhere.

The picture didn't show it very well, but this car hit a lady on a scooter and knocked her down. I didn't actually see it but the impact was loud. In the end both drove away and the cops never showed up or anything. Both parties were very calm about it and the lady didn't seem to get hurt. Below you can see the route the train took